Draft could assist ND in recruiting

April 28, 2012|ERIC HANSEN | South Bend Tribune

Malik Zaire, Notre Dame's quarterback of the future, was thinking deep into the future on Thursday night.

The junior at Kettering (Ohio) Alter High and unofficial leader of Twitter fraternity hashtag #IrishMob13 predicted his still-building recruiting class was going to be making the same kind of noise in the NFL Draft "three to four years" from now that national champ Alabama did Thursday night (four first-round picks).

"Recruits pay attention to which schools are producing draft picks," he said. "It's immensely important to them. And Notre Dame getting two first-round picks is going to generate some positive attention.

"Alabama has used it to their great advantage in recent years. Southern Cal used it, under Pete Carroll, and used it against Notre Dame. I've always said the academics are more for the parents. The players are interested in great facilities and the quickest way to the NFL.

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"Notre Dame has great facilities, but they have not shown they can get guys to the NFL in recent years."

Perhaps the trend started to shift Thursday night. Wide receiver Floyd (13th to Arizona) and safety Harrison Smith (29th to Minnesota) constitute the first multiple first-rounders that the Irish have produced since Bryant Young, Aaron Taylor and Jeff Burris in 1994.

It was a quiet night Friday, with no Irish players being selected in rounds 2 or 3. The draft concludes

Saturday with rounds 4-7 (noon-8 p.m., ESPN). ND players Robert Blanton, a defensive back, and Darius Fleming, an outside linebacker, are expected to have relatively short waits to get the call.

"It's a good sign that Notre Dame got two first-rounders," Lemming said. "I think they did a real good job with Harrison Smith, because a year ago, not a lot of people thought he'd get drafted at all."

Smith and Floyd were both top 100 prospects nationally coming out of high school, as rated by Lemming, in the 2007 and 2008 recruiting classes, respectively. But that's hardly been a guarantee of eventual draft status in the post-Lou Holtz coaching era.

The 2007 classes through the present still have draft-eligible players. But from the 1998 recruiting class to the 2006 class, former Irish coaches Bob Davie, Tyrone Willingham and Charlie Weis recruited a combined 57 top 100 prospects.

Only 19 of them were deemed among the roughly top 250 players nationally when it came to their respective draft year. And one of those players -- tight end Greg Olsen -- transferred to Miami (Fla.) before he took his first class as a freshman.

Over the same time period, ND produced 20 NFL draft choices among its non-top 100 prospects.

The most successful classes in producing NFL draft picks during that nine-year run were Davie's first two full cycles with no Holtz influence (10 draft picks in 1998, seven in 1999) and Willingham's first full recruiting cycle, 2003.

But in Davie's classes, those not expected to star at ND got to the NFL via the draft with more proficiency than those who were. The class in which star power did play out was the 2003 class that started under Willingham and finished under Weis.

Six of the seven top 100s in that class were drafted, as well as non-top 100s Chinedum Ndukwe and John Carlson. Wide receiver Jeff Samardzija would have joined them had he not committed to a professional baseball career.

But Willingham's next class produced zero draft picks. The 2005 class, a combination of Willingham and Weis recruits, sent only safety David Bruton to the pros via the draft, and the 2006 class -- ranked No. 2 nationally -- produced just two sixth-rounders, touted offensive tackle Sam Young and unheralded guard/center Eric Olsen.

"A lot of Notre Dame's lack of draftable talent has to do with a lack of consistency," Lemming said. "They've had a lot of coaching changes -- four offensive line coaches in the past five years, about that many offensive coordinators. No matter how talented you are, that can kind of screw you up.

"Notre Dame should produce eight to 10 guys a year in the draft. Once they start doing that, it should perpetuate itself to where they start getting better and better players.

"When there's just a few top prospects who don't make it to the NFL, you could say they were overrated coming out of high school. But when you have this many, you have to start pointing fingers at the previous regimes. Thursday night was a good night for Kelly and Notre Dame. Maybe it's a sign of things to come."

Smith settles in

Former Notre Dame safety Harrison Smith unwittingly laid the groundwork for his draft destination, Minnesota, three months ago at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Ala.

Smith was selected to play for the North squad, and the Vikings coaching staff was chosen to coach the North.